1. Field of the Invention
Delivery systems and apparatus for incinerators and explosion-proof furnaces. Automatic incineration equipment and delivery equipment for highly combustible materials to furnaces and incinerators.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The prior art includes U.S. Pat. No. 3,173,389 issued to Henry J. Cates, Jr., et al. providing explosion-proof closures and delivery systems for furnaces to handle highly combustible material. This system is fine for its purpose but does not include any way of conveying the combustible material into the furnace other than to move it through the explosion-proof doors nor is there any effort for handling drums and similar containers and retaining and reclaiming the drum or for selectively dumping packages and in case of emergency the drum itself. There is a need for such an arrangement where continuous quantities of highly combustible material such as plastic waste and other combustibles are being produced, as for example in industry, where waste plastic results from manufacturing processes. While conveyor systems per se are well known, the present arrangement handles the material and may be automatic insofar as handling the reclaimable drum or the package of waste material and also may be remotely controlled by an operator who observes and controls the procedure. Previously there has been a problem in handling highly combustible materials at the point where the material is released to the furnace because this is where sudden explosion or combustion may take place before handlers are out of the way.